Snooker News

Players Championship to Break Off

Tuesday marks the opening day in the 2016 Ladbrokes Players Championship in Manchester.

Ding Junhui
Ding qualified by winning the Haining Open in October.

Half of the last 32 matches will be played out today while the remaining first round encounters take place on Wednesday.

Much like the World Grand Prix in Llandudno a couple of weeks ago, the early stages of this event is shaped by a short best of seven frames format.

That means that, across two tables, back-to-back ties are scheduled for both the afternoon and evening sessions on each table.

However, a little perplexingly, like in Wales there’ll just be one TV table without the option to even stream the simultaneous game.

The tournament’s entirety will again be broadcast on ITV4 and Eurosport, with Stephen Hendry reportedly set to trade seats with the BBC and join rival ITV for this week’s coverage.

Whether that means we wont be seeing the seven-time world champion on our screens come the Crucible remains to be seen, but what it does highlight is ITV’s continued dedicated approach to providing top-notch snooker punditry.

The four clashes televised today are all humdingers.

Ding Junhui begins his quest to garner enough prize money to safeguard his place among the world’s top 16 against David Gilbert before World Grand Prix champion Shaun Murphy faces Liang Wenbo.

In the evening, Michael White and Luca Brecel duel in a battle of two of the sport’s brightest young prospects, to be followed by arguably the tie of the round in Judd Trump versus Martin Gould.

Play gets under way at 1pm local time.

The full draw can be viewed by clicking here.

No Comments

  1. Is alan mc manus still part of the commentry ?? great to have Stephen Hendry there

  2. I hope he is I like his commentary hate to see Hendry get his position..maybe hendry could be filling in for him as I think Alan has qualified for china next week

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